One-and-Only PS3 as Blu-Ray Player Thread - Page 52

Matt, As far as I know, the display PS3's (which are hidden behind or below the mock-ups) don't play Blu-Ray movies, so beyond movie trailers and game demo's, you probably won't get to see the BD capabilities in action. However I might be mistaken in this since those units do play game discs without any problems..

Can anyone comment on how calibrating for Video vs. PC levels is being set? What sources are bieng used?

I'm assuming it passes <16 and >235 codes over YVbCr.

Forigve me as I'm still looking for a unit here in Toronto.

ted

mash is on sd dvd.
BR disc is hi def medium so that wouldnt be an issue there.

i would like someone to comment on sd dvd aspect ratio shape as in my origional post

is that a regular SD DVD?

The PS3 isn't "stretching" anything... it's just displaying the image in 480i/p and you'll need to reset your display to "4x3" mode rather than the usual "16x9/full" mode for 16x9 anamorphic/HD material.

A future update may allow the PS3 to pillar-box 4x3 material in the center of a 16x9 frame so users of 480p displays that lock into 16x9 can still maintain aspect ratio (some displays lock into 16x9 full mode with any signal above 480i. That's limit of the TV though, not the PS3).

Like black bars above and below for > 16:9, Casablanca will have black bars on the left and right as part of the image data. It will still be a 1920x1080 frame.

In other words, you'll have to do something special NOT to get 4:3 displayed.

Gary

Anyone experience this and have a suggestion for a fix?
Last night after resetting my PS3 to factory settings per Sony, now it seems that there's less colors. Its still picture quality, but on the fading smoke graphic when going in and out of the music visualization, you can see bands of color. The best way to describe it is as if on a computer monitor set to 256 colors, and you display a fading color band, similar to the top border on any MS Windows program. I never noticed it before the reset, and now on the BD movies and especially the purple fade I see it. Later tonight Ill talk again with Sony.

Im using HDMI and the Vizio P50HDTV10A.
Resolution set to 1080i

Gary,

Obviously you don't recall that I once complained about the lack of an Anamorphic flag on next gen or that I'm a Constant Height type.

But as a fellow Torontonian I can forgive you that lapse.

My concern when reading the original post was that the PS3 stretched 4:3 Hi Def content. I'm now aware that the OP was referring to SD content. I doubt that will find its way into my box.

Now I've got to figure out whether to go ahead and get a scaler to provide the scaling I need or wait until I see whats happening with the new pj I plan to get in the future.

ted

Scalers get better and cheaper every day. Wait until the LAST possible minute to invest in a scaler.

a regular sd dvd?
is there any other kind.

really though.
yes a regular sd dvd.
the last ep of MASh.

the only way to change the shape on my tv mits 73831 is the format button.

somehow through ps3 hdmi it wont change the setting from full or whatever it is displaying.

the tv is steetching the image and isnt letting me switch to "regular"shape.

using my xa1 hd dvd it displays properly from the same exact input.
only 1 hdmi cable so i'm switiching it back and forth from ps3 to xa1.

i guess i'll just watch it on the xa1.

That's because that player is taking the 4x3 image and "pillarboxing" it inside a 16x9 frame. Is that player also upscaling or just keeping at 480p?

My older 16x9 TV would "lock" into 16x9 with any 480p image so I had to get a progressive-scan DVD player that could pillarbox 4x3 DVDs this way for the same reason.

Only sd title I've had issue with so far in the ps3 v1.3 is the non-anamorphic version of True Lies. Film was squished vertically. Didn't think of trying the tvs wide modes. Has anyone else tried na titles? This is a title I'll be replacing with a bd version when available (Fox? This would be a great title to remaster, Arnys best by far) so not worried at all. SD na titles have always looked baaad on all players. All my other sd collection has looked outstanding on the ps3, far better than the player it replaced. Screened Fantastic 4 bd last night and it matched the best hd I've seen. PS3 continues to impress.

Thanks David,
After buying the "game machine" last night, I woke up this morning thinking "How long am I going to be able to live without Constant Height for my Hi Def source?"

Damn if I'm not already pricing scalers since I don't expect to be able to stretch Hi Def with my HTPC anytime soon.

ted

Since the PS3 does not upscale dvds yet, I am thinking of getting the Oppo DV-981HD upconversion dvd player. Do you think it is worth getting an upconversion player now or should I wait till Sony decides to implement dvd upconversion for the PS3?

How long did it take the PS2's DVD-player to be stable? How many versions of the PS2 did it take? how many months or years was that?

These questions are the only thing holding me back from purchasing a new PS3. I remember getting my PS2 the very day it came out in the US, and the DVD player failed in 7 days!!... I am on my third PS2 these days... I remember that it took them a LONGGGG time to get the hardware guts correctly arranged to eliminate issues with heat and such.

Is the PS3 going through the same growing pains? If so, how the heck will I know when to pick one up? I refuse to buy another device that breaks after a week just because they rushed getting it onto the shelves...

thoughts?

Purchase a warranty

Stable? It worked out of the box, but it's still crap.


Wait, are you referring to the drive? I picked up my PS2 on launch day as well, and it's still working. That includes after being pulled out of the entertainment center repeated times onto the floor (a good 3-4 ft drop). The only problem I ever had with the drive was having to take it apart to clean the lens.


I bought a warranty.

Do you have more money or time? If you've got the money, buy the Oppo. If you've got the time, it's anyone's guess how long it's going to take them to actually get upconverting working. I'm waiting patiently at this point.

Hey,
I have a 42" Sony Wega as well as a projector and, in a nutshell, Oppo recommends their DV-970HD for any display 42" or smaller (I love mine) and their 971H (scaler/deinterlacer is identical to the new 981) for displays larger than 42" (DLPs suffer from the macro blocking issue on both the 971 and 981). The Oppo thread has more info on this, but this is the (over)simplified version, hope it helps.

www.oppodigital.com

You waited this long for an upscaling DVD player. Now that you've got the PS3, maybe you could wait a little longer? My suggestion would wait a month or so until we hear wind of what Sony plans to do with upscaling and how long it might take. If they say it should ready within a few months, then wait. If it looks like it could be a year or so out... then *maybe* that would be worth the $200 in an oppo.

I have the OPPO and it's definitely better than the PJ scaling... but I had it long before I got my PS3.

Buy an HD DVD player instead. I think the A1 & A2's upconversion is better than the Oppo's. This way you get your upconversion & a whole library of hi-def discs become available to you.

You guys looking for PS3 units in stores, try http://www.itrackr.com before doing eBay.

Sure... if you want to buy an HD DVD player. But $200 for an oppo is a really good price unless you want to spend $400 for upconversion given that the PS3 could end up being as good/better than the Toshiba for upconverting all-in-one once the update is delivered.

I just turned on the PS3 when I got home and it is updating to 1.31, wonder whats included with this update??

It really depends on how often you watch dvd's. If you watch dvd's several times a week it's probably a good idea to buy an oppo now. Who know's how long it'll take before Sony allows the ps3 to upconvert. Me on the other hand don't watch a lot of dvd's and I can wait until my ps3 upconverts. regular dvd's look good on my ps3 already because I'm coming from an old Sony DVP-NC665P.

If you got a PS3, don't buy an HD-DVD. It just prolongs the format war. Odds are better of Universal flipping than Disney, Fox and Sony all flipping.

If only Blu-Ray remains, maybe the "neutral" studios will used higher bitrates for their encodes since Blu-Ray has higher bandwidth and capacity.

My 6-year old PS2 works fine. But it never got the upgrade to support progressive scan and obviously could support modest firmware upgrades at best as it had no local storage other than the memory card.

Also it never worked with DVD-Rs. I think the PS3 has a lot more capability for upgrades. Whether Sony continues to do upgrades remains to be seen.

Allows audio to be output via HDMI and optical both, makes some web browser adjustments...

@wco81: Speakin' the truth.

what does that mean.
i was already getting audio through both

There had been some issues reported when using HDMI and optical both, but nevermind anyway, because it's all up in the air right now in terms of what 1.31 actually does. I was reporting what had been reported to me earlier, but now it seems sort of ephemeral. And I myself haven't conducted (and probably won't have time to) any tests, so... who knows. Hopefully we will, soon.

Someone posted the following in the playstation forum regarding what's in 1.31:

http://boardsus.playstation.com/play...865992&page=19